Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/11/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Frank, I've run similar tests with SLR lenses by all sorts of different manufacturers, but with the same focal length, on a Canon DSLR , it's true, you do get some big surprises, and you sometimes find that certain Leica SLR lenses are not all that spectacular. One of my best 200mm lenses is a no name (at least no name I could find - Optomax), very grubby, T-mount f4 lens I picked up on a fleamarket near Gatwick airport for 2 pounds fifty, it beats the socks off its Zeiss and Rollei equivalents. I also discovered a 4/135 Voigtl?nder Color-Dynarex in Rollei QBM-mount that is incredibly compact, light and a real killer. Other surprising lenses turned up from Yashica (2.8/55 macro, 2.8/24, and 3.5/21), Topcon (1.8/58) and a Japanese built Rollei 3.5/200. all great quality and really cheap on the s/h market. The demise of film has made this lens collecting fun a very reasonably priced new hobby. On Monday I'll be picking up an OM-10 with 2 lenses, three Pentax PK lenses (for an almost mint P-30 I found in a charity shop in the UK), a Voigtlaender VITO CL fixed-lens rangefinder and a Gossen meter all for a total of around 180 euros at my local camera shop. There's a Minolta SLR too, but I think I'll pass on that one because the lenses don't adapt to Canon without an intermediate lens element for infinity focus. So far I've only had one real dog of a lens, a Centon 28-70 with so much flare that you think you've been shooting in thick fog, but it came with the P-30 with a leather case and 2 other lenses for 20 pounds, so I'm not complaining much. A brand new hobby that doesn't cost much - what more could you ask for? Anything I can't use goes to the next camera shop in part exchange for something else. :-) Cheers, and have fun testing and comparing. Douglas Frank Filippone wrote: > So now I have this wonderful digital camera and I can see, within minutes, > the output from my camera on my Computer display. > > So I decide to find out how good my lenses are, by comparison...... I > happen to have acquired, over time, three 90 mm lenses.... An old Chrome > Elmarit, a small black Tele Elmarit, and a AA Summicron. I know it is nuts > to carry around 3 lenses of the same FL, so I decide to find out if the > little T-E is good enough to do the job for me for our upcoming vacation... > > So I take the 3 lenses outside and shoot some images for test. At F2.8 and > again at F8. Shutter speeds are pretty high ( 1/4000 at wide open, and > 1/360 stopped down). No camera shake issues there.... > > Wrong about the T-E.. and almost wrong again about the AA. The cheap old > Elmarit is a fabulous lens, and hold its own against the more recent AA. > The T-E is by far the lowest performing. > > Which is what I started to say about this digital world...... when you can > compare your lenses, you may get a fright that your old lenses perform as > well as they do, and your new multi thousand dollar lenses perform no > better....... > > All because you can get instant feedback..... It could become > addictive..... What;s next? My 2 50mm lenses and the 3E? My 35mm > Lenses? > 135mm? > > I may have a lot to sell off ...... > > Frank Filippone > red735i at earthlink.net > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > >